The "In Your Dreams" Survivor Thread - Round Six

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Would be nice if she and Annabel Lee could just lay down really quick like without talking about it in repetition for three minutes straight.

Michele

That coda is what makes the song so epic and special though. Without it, the song would be good but not as classic as it is.

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by Thrown_Down

I completely agree.

Me too...."Moonlight" and "Annabel Lee" are of the same level of quality as Stevie's classic songs. The YMBTO fans are pretty fervent about keeping it going. It would have been my fourth vote off (after "My Heart", "Ghosts Are Gone" and "Soldier's Angel" in that order).

[bangdrum]

FWIW (and I liked it at first! Just sick. Of. It. Already.) and Annabel Lee.

YMBTO jumped out at me the first time I listened.

[KarmaContestant]

Annabel Lee and Moonlight to go.

[Christopher]

Ho Hum, I cast my votes for Annabel Lee & FWIW. And "For What Its Worth" I believe the 4 songs remaining deserve to be in the final four.
If I were giving a casual fan an ad hoc preview of IYD, I would most definitely include these four tunes, along with New Orleans, In Your Dreams or Wide Sargasso Sea.

[jellyman10]

Well, that was torture. Went for FWIW and YMBTO, but I love them both. I just love the beautiful Annabel Lee and Moonlight a smidgen more......

Funny, looking back and remembering how horrified a lot of us were when we heard on the grapevine that Stevie had written a song inspired by Twilight, huh?

[bombaysaffires]

Moonlight.... incoherent remnant from the drug years. Be gone!

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by tabruns

That coda is what makes the song so epic and special though. Without it, the song would be good but not as classic as it is.

I don't think it's classic.

Although I think the overall execution is an improvement on the demo, I think it should have been edited a bit.

Michele

[mitzo]

Originally Posted by darklinensuit

IMO "Annabel Lee' has the worst vocal and blandest melody on the album. FWIW could have been pretty great but for that coarse/flat/GodsGardenesque quality to her voice on the chorus.
I am happy that "Moonlight" & YMBTO made it this far.

- Jake

Yup, Annabel Lee is a pretentious nonsensical effort at putting an irrelevant and inappropriate poem to very pedestrian music, while FWIW is basso profundo flat vocals over a sleepy, depressing, irritating arrangement.

Moonlight or YMBTW if we must. Sigh....

[jellyman10]

Originally Posted by mitzo

Yup, Annabel Lee is a pretentious nonsensical effort at putting an irrelevant and inappropriate poem to very pedestrian music, while FWIW is basso profundo flat vocals over a sleepy, depressing, irritating arrangement.

Moonlight or YMBTW if we must. Sigh....

I'm not sure I understand the first bit of that. Are you saying the music is too pedestrian for Poe's poem? Is that what makes the poem irrelevant? Or is the poem irrelevant in another way, to something else?

[BombaySapphire3]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

Moonlight.... incoherent remnant from the drug years. Be gone!

A druggy past that includes Dreams,Gold Dust Woman .Silver Springs.Sisters of the Moon , Sara , Storms ,Gypsy and Edge of Seventeen...Think I'll take that songwriting era over the Klonopin middle or the clear eyed present.

[Artemis]

Moonlight and You May Be The One, I love all four songs, but For What It's Worth is my favourite from IYD, and Annabel Lee may just have the prettiest music from any Stevie Nicks track... ever.

[tabruns]

Just curious why does ahafan keep mis-spelling "Annabel Lee"?

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by jellyman10

I'm not sure I understand the first bit of that. Are you saying the music is too pedestrian for Poe's poem? Is that what makes the poem irrelevant? Or is the poem irrelevant in another way, to something else?

Yes, I'm curious too.

Originally Posted by mitzo

irrelevant and inappropriate poem to very pedestrian music

I agree that the music is pedestran, but I'd hardly consider Poe's poem irrelevant. Inappropriate . . . well maybe in the necrophiliac sense. If it's about his wife/cousin the 13 year old that's creepy too. But what is tedious in a song means a lot to me in the poem.

In the poem the repetition not only stresses the depth of his feeling and agony, but his growing irrationality and madness. In that sense, it reminds me of The Bells -- another poem Stevie should not try to sing.

The actual poem carries a petulance and resentment that the song lacks and I think it captures that anger you get when a loved one is taken away. You feel a "too good for this cruel world" thing and start to wonder why someone you love was taken when less worthy people are roaming around leading meaningless lives in perfect health.

I think that's a phase of grief that they should talk about more. You go through denial and anger, but the anger has multi-folds. It can be made up of paranoia and resentment too. You're mad at the person who left, but you're also mad at the world that took them. The God (or angels) who spirited them away, but there's also a resentment, a jealousy towards those who still live. Poe's guy said that the angels were jealous of Annabel, but I think he was kind of jealous that the people who survive have lives and passions inferior to his own and they can still enjoy them.

I think the emotion the poem deals with is quite potent.

Michele

[mitzo]

Originally Posted by jellyman10

I'm not sure I understand the first bit of that. Are you saying the music is too pedestrian for Poe's poem? Is that what makes the poem irrelevant? Or is the poem irrelevant in another way, to something else?

The poem was written long ago by a man about a girl, which makes it an irrelevant theme for a song by Stevie, who is a woman. To me it makes no sense. Why couldn't she have been inspired by the poem and adapt it to be more appropriate? The melody and arrangement of AL is pedestrian, to me, quite ordinary, and fails to compensate for the way offbase lyrics.

I simply cannot see where the love for this song comes from. I am baffled by both the song and the reaction to it.

Just opinion, is all.